Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Shachtmanism: Unity Caucus, Know Your Roots

Al Shanker's long-time secretary was Yetta Shachtman, Max Shachtman's wife. Almost all the early leaders of the UFT were members of Social Democrats USA (SDUSA) and in fact it was well-known you could not rise in the UFT without being a member.

In 1976 Al Shanker tried to push the UFT into supporting Henry Scoop Jackson for president. I was the opposition speaker at the DA and in probably my best moment in those years raised the guns/butter argument as we were right smack in the midst of the massive 1975-76 NYC budget crisis with 15,000 teachers laid off. I was really astounded at Shanker's brazenness.

Note this interesting 2003 item talking about Shachtmanites in the Bush White House.

Influence
on Bush aides: Bolshevik's writings supported the idea of pre-emptive war

www.prisonplanet.com/trotskys_ghost_wandering_the_white_house....

Shachtman had a legion of young followers (known as Shachtmanites) active ... When the Shachtmanites started working for Senator Jackson, they forged close ...

Really fascinating stuff and maybe a hint of why the UFT/AFT are closet neo-liberals. Or maybe not so closet. I didn't read it all yet but intend intend to.

Randi was never outwardly known to be a member of SDUSA but some people think she would not have been let in the door if she wasn't, at least in her early days. Some think she would have joined whatever they wanted her to to serve her ambition, that she is agnostic on these issues. I am not sure. But given the fall of the iron curtain before Randi took over and the UFT initial support for both Bush wars, despite the fact it was clear they would decimate education budgets, someone has to show me where she has strayed from basic Shankerism/Shachtmanism.

I'm putting this up front since it has the most application to the UFT:

Social Democratic Shachtmanism

Social democratic Shachtmanism, later developed by Shachtman and associated with some members of the Social Democrats, USA, holds Soviet Communist states to be so repressive that that communism must be contained and, when possible, defeated by the collective action of the working class. Consequently, adherents support free labor unions
and democracy movements around the world. Domestically, they organized
in the civil rights movement and in the labor movement. Social democrats
influenced by Shachtman rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire and
the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, but rather opposed
bombings in Vietnam and supported a negotiated peace that would allow
labor unions and government-opposition to survive. Such social democrats
helped provide funding and supplies to the Solidarity, the Polish labor union, as requested by the Polish workers.

Sounds simple when the say "free" labor unions. In fact "free" means any union free of left influence. They spent money undermining left-leaning labor unions around the world, most notably in Chile (see George Schmidt's late 1970s pamphlet in this issue which I can send you upon request.)

Thus the Unity Caucus MUST prevail against any opposition because by nature any serious opposition will have left influences or it wouldn't get anywhere. Some people on the left view New Action, which has/had a left base, as selling out any chance for a real opposition to get a foothold by making a deal with the devil for a few Executive Board seats.

Origin

Shachtmanism originated as a tendency within the US Socialist Workers Party in 1939, as Shachtman's supporters left that group to form the Workers Party
in 1940. The tensions that led to the split extended as far back as
1931. However, the theory of "bureaucratic collectivism," the idea that
the USSR was ruled by a new bureaucratic class and was not capitalist,
did not originate with Shachtman, but seems to have originated within
the Trotskyist movement with Yvan Craipeau, a member of the French Section of the Fourth International, and Bruno Rizzi.
Although Shachtman groups resignation from the SWP was not only over the defence of the Soviet Union, rather than the class nature of the state itself, that was a major point in the internal polemics of the time.

Currents influenced by Shachtman

Regardless of its origins in the American SWP, Shachtmanism's core
belief is opposition to the American SWP's defence of the Soviet Union.
This originated not with Shachtman but Joseph Carter and James Burnham, who proposed this at the founding of the SWP in 1938. C. L. R. James
referred to the implied theory, from which he dissented, as Carter's
little little pill. The theory was never fully developed by anybody in
the Workers Party and Shachtman's book, published many years later in
1961, consists earlier articles from the pages of New International with some political conclusions reversed. Ted Grant has alleged that some Trotskyist thinkers, including Tony Cliff, who have described such societies as "state capitalist" share an implicit theoretical agreement with some elements of Shachtmanism.[1] Cliff, who published a critique of Shachtmanism in the late 1940s,[2] would have rejected this allegation.

Social Democratic Shachtmanism

Social democratic Shachtmanism, later developed by Shachtman and associated with some members of the Social Democrats, USA, holds Soviet Communist states to be so repressive that that communism must be contained and, when possible, defeated by the collective action of the working class. Consequently, adherents support free labor unions
and democracy movements around the world. Domestically, they organized
in the civil rights movement and in the labor movement. Social democrats
influenced by Shachtman rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire and
the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, but rather opposed
bombings in Vietnam and supported a negotiated peace that would allow
labor unions and government-opposition to survive. Such social democrats
helped provide funding and supplies to the Solidarity, the Polish labor union, as requested by the Polish workers.

11 comments:

Literary critic and essayist Irving Howe started out as a Schachtmanite, and Shankar was connected with them through his affiliation with the Student League for Industrial Democracy at Columbia.

The key takeaway and current relevance of all this is the continuing paper-thin claim of Social Democratic beliefs on the part of UFT/AFT leaders, while aligning themselves over the decades with stone Cold Warriors (even going so far as having involvement in the 9/11/73 fascist coup against the Allende government in Chile) and Austerians at home.

That continues to this day, with Randi Weingarten's professed pwogwessive politics belied by her direct collaboration with education privatizers such as Gates and Broad.

Another takeaway from the Schachtmanite heritage is the willingness to divide and destroy what you cannot control, and to be unscrupulous in internecine conflicts, using rumors and falsehoods to advance the Party Line.

Thanks for the education. But to most of our members this is right up there with Sulla's proscriptions, in terms of relevance. I went to an ICE/TJC event years ago in disgust with Randi's dictatorship, but I knew it was a waste as soon as I heard all the old left claptrap about capitalist courts, proletarian classaes, and the like. My intuition was that the opposition was more about world revolution and less about Our Union.

Admit to being batshit insane, mainly because I'm answering you and even let your usual inane comments go through. But here is a suggestion. Just copy and paste this yourself. And of course I'm out of touch with the teaching force and have been in many ways for 20 years. But I guess you think people over 50 have no rights or that I should ignore them. And you should note that when Michael Fiorillo and I did a history of the UFT last July almost 60 people showed up, mostly young. You can see the video for yourself -- and we covered a lot of this territory. And I get emails from younger teachers who hunger for this history. So maybe far from a majority but I am not interested in the majority half of which will leave teaching and a quarter of what's left will gravitate out of the classroom. I'm interested in the younger teachers like the ones we have recruited to MORE. Just take a look at the elementary school slate and how long most of them have been teaching. That was the point I wanted to make -- there is a new generation of activists with hopefully some staying power. We'll see.

You could not have gone to an ICE/TJC event since there never was an ICE/TJC event. Each group met on its own and in fact there was little interaction other than briefly at election time. Maybe you dreamed it.

You're not right about the joint meeting. Not TJC at all. That was in Dec. 2003 at the first public meeting of ICE just a month after forming. TJC had no role in it. TJC people were not happy since they had declared they were running in October 2003 and put forth a presidential candidate which ICE people were not happy with. (I and others had attended some TJC meetings in Sept and Oct and were not happy with the narrowness of focus and that spurred the idea of ICE).There were a few TJC people in the audience of about 50 or 60 people. What is interesting is that given that there were 3 groups out there -- TJC, New Action, and Marc Pessin's Progressive Action Caucus (I've left them off the story for now because even though ICE ran a joint slate with them ICE-PAC that was their last shot before fading) ICE was creating initial excitement in in fact over the next 3 years had some promise.But let's deal with your rhetoric about who was at that meeting and what was said. In any open meeting everyone is welcome to speak. And of course the left and ultra left showed up for that and each one of them must give their spiel. Progressive Labor Party (Challenge newspaper) got involved with ICE (they were not exactly welcome in TJC which had its own rhetoric) and at every single meeting they each had to give their spiel which even today is pretty much the same. And they do that at MORE meetings too. Which doesn't make it bad but for people not used to the left POV that can be a turn off and begin to brand an organization. At one point a PL person used to say at every meeting how she is a Communist and one woman I recruited to ICE looked at me in horror and never came back. I was pretty frustrated and told the PL person that and she stopped. Sometimes I don't know what people were thinking. Like I said -- the left talks to the left and either doesn't understand or doesn't give a crap where people may be coming from.But your point about the many in the opposition is a good one. If it is only the hard core left then it goes nowhere. ICE was an attempt to counter that -- note the word "Independent" in the name -- independent from the influence of a leftist organization pulling the strings. And we truly were -- James Eterno not a leftist and Jeff Kaufman took prominent roles in ICE and in fact became the voice of the group which of course turned off some leftists. And it was a balancing act as MORE is. So like I said -- if it tips one way or the other I will not spend much time going through this deja vu thing time and again.

I didnt dream it, but i cant swear which group specifically hosted it. It was at the Graduate Center? And it was pathetic. But, since you are an expert at dream analysis, was the 8% showing in the last election also a figment of my imagination? You will never be a legitimate force as long as Trotsky continues to occupy one scintilla of space in your mind.

YES I remember - Jan. 2009 at CUNY -- outcome of the ATR rally that you guys tried to undercut with the wine and cheese party but ICE and TJC had nothing to do with sponsoring this event. I think there may have been some reps on the panel from various groups. ICE showed up just as Unity and New Action people did. As a matter of fact some of the disatisfactions with that panel led Angel and I to start putting people together in the group that became GEM.The moderator was not in any of the groups at that time. I was in Mexico when that was being promoted and I kept asking who is behind it but never got a satisfactory answer and that caused some rifts. Once we got there it was clear that Behind it was Marjorie Stamberg and her new group at the time Class Struggle who I view as ultra left. The reject groups like MORE and ICE as being not Marxist enough. OR whatever term they are using. They have been openly critical of Chicago TU for not staying on strike until they won really big. Like forever. But you might as well have dreamed it because I don't view their views as coming from earth.So yes you are right. Groups like class struggle don't have much of a following -- I can't name one UFT member other than Marjorie. They won;t support MORE and never did ICE though when they needed support for an issue they are always ready to ask us to promote for them. But I know the game -- try to brand the entire opposition as them. But they are not in it to win it but to use whatever forum toOn the vote last time, In fact since we had no interest in trolling for votes among retirees who we think should not vote or any way to reach fucntional people, and given the forces we had we concentrated on high school teachers and those results were 35% -- if new action weren't in this to distract or if NA had run with MORE Unity would be toast in the high schools.

Again, this forum ought to be reserved for the purposes of us personally insulting you and anyone associated with you. We would very much appreciate it if you would refrain from defending yourselves with facts and get back to the topic. Namely, when are you going to answer my unsubstantiated accusation about a MORE member I have not named? And why won't you accept 30 seconds at the DA as a substitute for debate?

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.